8 Dorm Room Ideas – Decor Items for College Dorm Rooms

When your dorm room feels like a dull and boring cinder block, expressing your personality can be tough. All of these new friends and no way to show them your killer style? Quelle tragique.

Especially when your budget is basically zero. Enter: Ikea, the haven for all things cheap and beautiful. Transform these inexpensive buys into something special that screams you with these eight easy-to-DIY Ikea hacks.

1. Faux Fur Stool

credit: Dainty Dress Diary

Your cookie-cutter dorm room could definitely use some glitz. Add a little glamour with Ikea’s Marius stool ( $4.99 ). It starts out as an ugly hunk of black plastic, but add some spray paint and an ultra-fluffy faux fur cushion to create this funky seat. Find the instructions over at the Dainty Dress Diaries.

2. Mini Pinboards

credit: The Things She Makes

Make the best use of your limited wall space with these cute miniature cork pinboards from Sophie over at The Things She Makes. Press double-sided mounting tape on Ikea’s Heat trivets ( $3.99 for a set of 3 ) and cut out shapes to decorate the front. Animal-shaped pins can (instructions here) make a funky home for your keys.

6. Photo Display

credit: Ikea Share Space

Show off your favorite pictures with this Ikea-approved dorm room hack. Pick up a couple of the hard-to-pronounce Dignitet curtain wires( $14.99 ) and criss-cross them on the wall behind your bed. Use colorful clothes pins to keep your artwork on display.

7. Dyed (Faux) Sheepskin Rug

credit: Paper & Stitch

College dorm floors aren’t known for feeling soft and plush. Add a bit color and coziness to your room, and make your toes happy campers in the process, by dyeing Ikea’s Tejn faux-sheepskin rug ( $14.99 ). Just follow Brittni Mehlhoff’s simple instructions over at Paper & Stitch.

8. Accordion Wall Sconce

credit: Poppytalk

Study late into the night — without bothering your roommate too much — with this easy Ikea upgrade. Combine the Fräck mirror ( $9.99 ) with an inexpensive clamp light to create a clever industrial wall sconce. Hop on over to Poppytalk to see Jan Halvarson’s simple instructions.